Two elderly German men who went missing from their care home were discovered among the crowds at the world’s biggest heavy metal festival.
The pair disappeared without warning from an old people’s home in the rural Dithmarschen area of northern Germany on Friday night, prompting staff to call in the emergency services.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The annual festival, whose previous headliners include metal legends such as Motorhead, Judas Priest and Iron Maiden, attracts upwards of 80,000 attendees every year to the otherwise tranquil village of Wacken, in northern Germany.
Although the geriatric rockers were reported to be “disoriented and dazed”, they were “reluctant to leave” the four-day festival - only doing so with encouragement of a police escort, says Deutsche Welle.
“They obviously liked the metal festival,” police spokeswoman Merle Neufeld told state broadcaster Norddeutscher Rundfunk, adding that the care home “quickly organised return transport” for the two residents after police picked them up.
A patrol car accompanied the retirees back to the care home as a “precautionary measure”, Der Spiegel reports.
-
The Week contest: Primate peckPuzzles and Quizzes
-
Paddington: The Musical – a ‘funny, feel-good, family-friendly’ showThe Week Recommends The cast take a ‘well-known story’ and ‘melt your heart’ with this triumphant production
-
Political cartoons for December 4Cartoons Thursday’s political cartoons include a nap for Donald Trump, rage bait of the year, artificial intelligence turning on its master and more
-
Femicide: Italy’s newest crimeThe Explainer Landmark law to criminalise murder of a woman as an ‘act of hatred’ or ‘subjugation’ but critics say Italy is still deeply patriarchal
-
Brazil’s Bolsonaro behind bars after appeals run outSpeed Read He will serve 27 years in prison
-
Americans traveling abroad face renewed criticism in the Trump eraThe Explainer Some of Trump’s behavior has Americans being questioned
-
Nigeria confused by Trump invasion threatSpeed Read Trump has claimed the country is persecuting Christians
-
Sanae Takaichi: Japan’s Iron Lady set to be the country’s first woman prime ministerIn the Spotlight Takaichi is a member of Japan’s conservative, nationalist Liberal Democratic Party
-
Russia is ‘helping China’ prepare for an invasion of TaiwanIn the Spotlight Russia is reportedly allowing China access to military training
-
Interpol arrests hundreds in Africa-wide sextortion crackdownIN THE SPOTLIGHT A series of stings disrupts major cybercrime operations as law enforcement estimates millions in losses from schemes designed to prey on lonely users
-
China is silently expanding its influence in American citiesUnder the Radar New York City and San Francisco, among others, have reportedly been targeted
